Bwa-Drain Mine

Overview

Bwa-Drain Mine was a lead and silver mine in the Melindwr community of Ceredigion, near Talybont, worked from 1867 to 1876 and drained by a waterwheel-driven pump on the River Rheidol.

History

Bwa-Drain Mine lies on the high moorland ridge of Banc Bwa-Drain in upland Ceredigion, land that by the 18th century belonged to the Nanteos and Gogerddan estates. The mine itself was worked over a short but productive period from 1867 to 1876, raising 1,322.5 tons of lead ore and around 22,000 ounces of silver -- a substantial return for a mine worked for less than a decade. Water for pumping the workings was drawn from the River Rheidol and used to drive a waterwheel-powered pumping engine. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales's own record of the site draws on notes written to accompany photography taken by Arthur Chater in 1969, itself based on earlier survey work.

Workings

The mine was drained by a waterwheel-driven pumping engine, powered by water drawn from the River Rheidol.

What remains

A disused lead mine on Banc Bwa-Drain; a plan of the workings survives in the Ceredigion Archives (reference MUS/88).

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The mine was worked from 1867 to 1876, producing 1,322.5 tons of lead and around 22,000 ounces of silver, drained by a pumping device driven by a waterwheel on the Rheidol. ¹
• The surrounding upland, Banc Bwa-Drain, belonged by the 18th century to the Nanteos and/or Gogerddan estates -- the same landowning families behind other Ceredigion lead-mining ventures in the district. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Bwa-Drain Lead Mine (NPRN 420247) — Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
2. (secondary) Banc Bwa-Drain — Heneb: Cambrian Archaeological Projects (Historic Landscape Characterisation)

Record created: 1 September 2026 · Last researched: 1 September 2026